... by Calvino is a book written for anyone who loves reading, writing or has ever fallen under the spell of the written words ...
"Every new book I read comes to be a part of that overall and unitary book that is the sum of my readings. This does not come about without some effort: to compose that general book, each individual book must be transformed, enter into a relationship with the books I have read previously, become their corollary or development or confutation or gloss or reference text".